I’m not a great waster in the kitchen but I have to confess I usually just throw leftover pastry away; the small amount of pastry such as was left over after making the Rhubarb Tart yesterday. Sometimes, I’ll leave the little clump of leftovers in the fridge, promising myself I’ll do something with it in a day or two; at times I’ve frozen it with similarly good intentions of getting it out of the freezer one day and making something with it. The trouble is, it’s always far smaller than the amount I need to make again what it was originally intended for and nearly always it ends up in the bin, unused but beyond its life after a few days in the fridge or weeks in the freezer. 

I think what spurred me on today was the lack of pudding … dessert … whatever we wish to call it. The Rhubarb Tart yesterday was such a success with seconds being handed out – which I was delighted by – I left the small amount left over at my son’s and didn’t bring any home. I’m not someone who feels a need to have a pudding on a Monday night usually … but it is a Bank Holiday. Bank holidays and weekends aren’t quite the same for freelancers. I’ve been working much of today. I often work at weekends, for instance, because I prefer to do certain things during the less busy weekdays, since I have the choice. However, a bank holiday is a little bit more special than an ordinary weekend … or that’s what I told myself as I contemplated the ball of leftover pastry sitting in my fridge. Then I remembered the lovely Apple Tartlets I made some time ago and thought that maybe it was worth making them with the pastry; it wouldn’t be quite the same as the puff pastry I used before but worth a go. 

It was actually easier to roll than yesterday, so maybe that’s the answer to making it with the Heritage flour again! I cut the pastry into rounds and then painted the edges with beaten egg, put a little frame of pastry round the edge and brushed with more egg. [It did occur to me at this point I was going to end up with leftover egg! But you can always choose to have an omelette or scrambled egg for supper.]

Organic Gala apples were sitting in my fruit bowl. Really none of this was going to take much time but hopefully the result would be good.

I peeled one apple, cut it in half, then quarters and removed the core. Then I sliced them as thinly as I could and fanned each quarter onto one of the prepared pastry cases. I’d thought I might need two apples but one was plenty.

I brushed the edges with egg; even a little over the apple and then sprinkled a little caster sugar over the top. They went into a 200C/Fan 180/Gas 6 oven for 20 minutes until nicely browned.  I then put them under a hot grill for a couple of minutes (as I did with the original tartlets) to try to caramelise the top of the apples but gave up quite quickly, worried I was just going to burn the pastry!

I melted a little marmalade in a pan with a splash of water, then brushed some over each tartlet to glaze. They certainly looked very good but the test would be in the tasting. 

I ate one for pudding after my supper, serving it with a scoop of Grom’s hazelnut gelato, which I had in my freezer (there is always good gelato in my freezer!). 

It was lovely; a gorgeous treat. Of course now I have three leftover tartlets! One can never, it seems, escape leftovers! However, I pick grandson Freddie up from school on Tuesdays so I’m pretty sure he’ll help me out tomorrow by having one!